Kerbalism Bridge

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Kerbalism Bridge extends Kerbalism to advanced power and thermal parts — reactors, converters, harvesters, capacitors, cryo tanks, and more. Those parts show up in the Kerbalism planner, pull from Kerbalism resource stores in flight, and keep simulating on unloaded vessels during timewarp instead of freezing at unload-time values.

The download ships as several optional GameData packages: a main bridge (minimum for SystemHeat) plus satellite mods you add only when you need them.

Lineage and improvements

This project continues the work of judicator/KerbalismSystemHeat and judicator/KerbalismFFT (originally by Alexander Rogov). It is maintained at Aebestach/KerbalismBridge and is not an official judicator release.

Compared with upstream KerbalismSystemHeat, Kerbalism Bridge keeps the core idea — Kerbalism resource accounting for SystemHeat parts, planner support, and background simulation — and adds:

Loaded-vessel integration for fission reactors and engines (upstream mainly covered unloaded vessels).
Background thermal simulation for SystemHeat loops on unloaded vessels, so long timewarps do not leave heat loops frozen at unload-time values.
Two integration layers (Layer A / Layer B) instead of one style for every part — see below.
Optional satellites for NFE capacitors, SpaceDust harvesters, CryoTanks, dynamic radiation decay, and more.
zKerbalismPluginHost loading from PluginData/ (do not put Bridge DLLs in Plugins/).

Compared with upstream KerbalismFFT, this fork keeps antimatter containment, fusion reactor/engine planner and background behaviour, science and reliability patches, and industrial FFT processors — and improves:

Loaded-vessel Kerbalism routing for fusion reactors (power and propellant), not only background simulation.
Fusion waste heat in Bridge background thermal sim when the main bridge is installed.
CryoTanks moved to a separate zKerbalismCryo satellite for clearer maintenance.

Version history: CHANGELOG.md.

Layer A and Layer B (brief)

Bridge does not use one integration style for every part. Pick one layer per part:

	Layer A — Process	Layer B — Native
Package	`zKerbalismProcess`	`zKerbalismNative` + optional satellites
Best for	Stock-style converters, harvesters, fuel cells	Mod-native C# modules (fission, fusion, capacitors, SpaceDust, cryo tanks, …)
Approach	Part runs Kerbalism processes; optional SystemHeat loop heat	Native module stays; a sidecar routes resources through Kerbalism

Quick rule: parts that already use Kerbalism ProcessController / Harvester → Layer A. Parts with mod-specific modules (SystemHeat fission, FFT fusion, NFE capacitors, …) → Layer B. Do not mix both on the same part.

Packages

Main bridge (minimum for SystemHeat)

GameData folder	Role
`zKerbalismBridge`	Shared runtime — background thermal sim, editor sim, settings
`zKerbalismProcess`	Layer A — converters, harvesters, radiators
`zKerbalismNative`	Layer B core — SystemHeat fission, generic SH converters/harvesters

Satellites (optional)

GameData folder	Role
`zKerbalismFFT`	Far Future Technologies — antimatter, fusion, science, industrial plants
`zKerbalismDynamicRadiation`	Post-shutdown radiation decay on integrated fission / fusion parts
`zKerbalismCryo`	CryoTanks + SystemHeat cryogenic tanks
`zKerbalismNFE`	Near Future Electrical — discharge capacitors
`zKerbalismSpaceDust`	SpaceDust harvesters
`zKerbalismSterlingSystems`	Sterling Systems — fission, converters, engines, and more; ships its own `Localization/` (pairs with Kerbalism master, not `feature/systemheat` or in-mod `SterlingSystemsKerbalism`)

Requirements

Required	Notes
Kerbalism 3.32+	Bootstrap `*.kbin` workflow
zKerbalismPluginHost	Deferred loader for Bridge DLLs
Module Manager	Patches

Installation

Install Kerbalism, Module Manager, and zKerbalismPluginHost.
Remove legacy GameData/zKerbalismSystemHeat and any old Plugins/ copies of Bridge DLLs. If upgrading from pre-1.0 Bridge, install the new zKerbalismNFE satellite for NFE capacitors.
Copy zKerbalismBridge + zKerbalismProcess + zKerbalismNative into GameData (minimum bridge).
Add satellites as needed (zKerbalismFFT, zKerbalismNFE, zKerbalismSpaceDust, zKerbalismCryo, zKerbalismDynamicRadiation, zKerbalismSterlingSystems).
Delete ModuleManager.ConfigCache and restart KSP.

Settings

Tunable defaults live in each package's Settings.cfg:

File	Notable keys
`zKerbalismBridge/Settings.cfg`	`BackgroundThermalSim`, `BackgroundRadiatorCoefficient`
`zKerbalismDynamicRadiation/Settings.cfg`	`Reactor_` / `Engine_` min emission and decay rates
`zKerbalismCryo/Settings.cfg`	`Enabled`
`zKerbalismFFT/Settings.cfg`	Antimatter background detonation; FFT radioactivity coefficients

Documentation

Path	Purpose
CHANGELOG.md	Version history
docs/DEVELOPER.md	Build, release, and architecture (developers)
docs/legal/ATTRIBUTION.md	Fork and copyright notices

Licensing

See LICENSE. Runtime dependencies remain under their respective licenses.

Aebestach/KerbalismBridge

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